The plot thickens. "Putin regards London, with some justice, as like pre-Castro Havana, an open city awash in the laundered loot of Yeltsin's privatisations, draining the new Russia of investment and talent and giving refuge to people he sees as tax-dodgers and thieves," writes Simon Jenkins in the Guardian. One of those people is undoubtedly the exiled tycoon Boris Berezovksy, who - if the Sun's sources are correct - was the target of a Russian hitman who intended to murder him in a hotel room some time during the past fortnight.

"HITMAN AT THE HILTON ... MI5 and MI6 intercepted intelligence about the plot ... and the hitman was seized before he could open fire," says the Sun in its "world exclusive".

A "senior government security source" tells the paper that Britain "cannot tolerate a situation where Russian hit squads can roam the streets of London trying to take out enemies of their regime."

"Scotland Yard pay a lot of attention to my protection," Mr Berezovsky, who recently gave an interview to the Guardian in which he said Vladimir Putin's regime would have to be toppled by force, tells the paper, "and I'm happy about that."

The news of the alleged assassination attempt will do little to calm UK-Russian relations. The FT says the Kremlin is still mulling over how to respond to the expulsion of four of its diplomats from London after its refusal to hand over Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

"The cold war is over and the rules are unclear," writes Quentin Peel in the FT. "Instead of knowing we are on opposite sides, we want to be friends and do business, but we still do not entirely trust each other. More than that, we have different systems, both political and legal. The very words we use - democracy and the rule of law, for example - mean different things on either side of the old divide."

The Independent's front page says the cost of train travel has risen 52% and bus tickets 55%, while the cost of running a car has fallen 10%. Striking statistics, but the question is: since when? Over the past 30 years, according to the second paragraph of the story. Consider the past decade instead and the figures are, while regrettable, not quite as shocking: cars still cost 10% less to run than in 1997, but the price of rail travel is up by 6% and bus journeys by 13%. "By an unfortunate irony," says the paper, "the drive to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles in the cause of reducing greenhouse gases has, perversely, made motoring cheaper, and encouraged people to drive more."

Drivers enjoying their cheap rides will soon be monitored even more closely than before, according to the Times' splash. It says the Home Office wants to use "smart" cameras monitoring congestion to track number plates - not just in anti-terrorism operations, but in all crime-fighting activity. The Metropolitan Police have just been granted access to data from London's 2,640 congestion charge cameras during counterterrorism operations.

The Telegraph takes a particular interest in the decision to suspend George Galloway from the Commons for 18 days for failing to declare payments made to his Mariam Appeal charity by a representative of Saddam Hussein. The Bethnal Green MP won £150,000 in damages from the paper in 2004 after it alleged he received kickbacks from Saddam.

The Telegraph's original story was based on documents unearthed by the Telegraph reporter David Blair in Baghdad shortly after the invasion that, in the paper's words, "suggested the MP had received support from Saddam Hussein's government for the Mariam Appeal". After awarding Mr Galloway damages, Mr Justice Eady said Telegraph readers could have interpreted the original report to mean that Mr Galloway had profited personally from Iraq's oil-for-food programme.

Yesterday Sir Philip Mawer, the chairman of the parliamentary standards committee, said the MP "through his controlling position in the appeal, benefited from those monies, in terms of furtherance of his political objectives" and "received such support at least recklessly or negligently, and probably knowingly." He had been "complicit" in trying to conceal the origins of the monies, it added. But he had not benefited personally.

The Telegraph still wants an apology. "On the one hand, the committee has exonerated an outstanding journalist [David Blair], who is now our diplomatic correspondent. On the other, it agrees with the commissioner in finding that Mr Galloway, while not benefiting 'directly and personally' from Saddam's regime, failed to fulfil his parliamentary obligations with regard to the Mariam Appeal." It splashes with the news that Mr Galloway may now be investigated by Scotland Yard.

The Sun is also pleased - and chides its News International stablemate, Sky News, for "giving the creep 23 minutes of precious airtime yesterday to spout his malicious bile live on air". "Galloway is a one-man political party, an apologist for Islamist extremism and an embarrassment to decent Muslims."

The Mail, meanwhile, wants to know "what kind of justice" means that "fewer than half" of criminals are brought before the courts. Police are issuing increasing numbers of on-the-spot fines and cautions.

The Brown administration is about to announce a "bonfire" of public sector targets, according to the Guardian - retaining just 30 of the performance indicators created in the hope of bettering schools, the NHS and local councils.

"[The Chief secretary to the Treasury, Andy] Burnham said the targets were appropriate for the first 10 years when public services were being restored after decades of under-investment," the paper says. "But it was time to move on." The 18-week hospital waiting time target will survive.

Meanwhile, the children's minister, Ed Balls, says he wants children to enjoy traditional rough-and-tumble games regardless of what the Sun calls "elf 'n' safety" regulations. "My assumption is, that if it snows, kids go out and build snowmen and have snowball fights, that in October kids go out and play conkers, that they play marbles," Mr Balls says.

"This is Private Gareth White," splashes the Mirror, picturing a soldier holding his rifle. "He is 18 but looks 10 years older." The headline is no exaggeration. "This is a vivid snapshot of how war changes our young men."

In a sober and moving piece, Chris Hughes talks to British soldiers serving in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. "Their average age is just 19 ... This is not now a counter-insurgency operation but a full-blooded war of devastating intensity. Attacks can last for five days. Battles can last for 12 hours."

"I was on leave recently and I don't think people realise what it's like here," a 21-year-old veteran of Iraq tells Hughes. "It's as if Afghanistan is a massive secret. No one talks about it."

Elsewhere, the Herald Tribune has details of a "grim new intelligence assessment" of the efforts to tackle Osama bin Laden's network in Pakistan. It blames President Pervez Musharraf's "hands-off" approach to the tribal regions of the country.

The thought that "Queen" Camilla might one day snatch the title that would have been - should have been - Diana's renders the Express aghast. "Charles is entitled to a married life with the woman he loves," sniffs the paper. "But for the sake of the monarchy he would be well advised to push the matter no further than that."

Camilla, too, has said she does not want to become Queen, preferring the title "princess consort" - though the paper claims Prince Charles is "softening up" the country to accept her as such: 28% of the population now endorse the idea. Only 7% did in 2005.

But would a non-Queen Camilla be permitted? "Legislation might have to be amended if she insists," worries the Telegraph. Camilla, who was 60 yesterday, seemed unbothered.